Signature Line
by you'vegotthis
Summary: Angst-free with a light plot! Season 4.5 because we all need a distraction this weekend to face the finale. Breathe people. Just breathe. UNEXPECTED SECOND CHAPTER!
1. Chapter 1

There was no way she could have worn a white shirt to work, but that wasn't her biggest problem.

Her biggest problem was that she needed a wild theory to solve this case. Castle had gone AWOL, she hadn't heard from him since this morning, despite numerous texts and calls. All of which made the delivery of her cup of coffee and a bear-claw with a signed paper napkin even more audacious. No note. Just his name scrawled in black permanent marker.

John Ackerman was dead and no route that Ryan, Esposito or she had explored had panned out. Okay, so the team was working down-a-man. A little desperate, she tried to think like he would.

Zombie, CIA, Ninja assassins . . . okay this was bad, she had landed on Ninja assassins for the sheer novelty of it. But then, John Ackerman had been shot, so it seemed unlikely. She made a face.

"Girlfriend has a record," Esposito approached her, infused a little hope, squelched it just as quickly, "for possession of marijuana . . . at age 18."

"That doesn't help much."

"This will," Ryan joined, "beneficiary of the life insurance? One Paula Johnston."

"Paula Johnston? Not the same Paula Johnston, Castle's Publicist?"

oxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

"Nikki Heat," Paula stuck her hand out to shake.

"Actually, it's Kate Beckett." It was a little too warm for her to be wearing a very necessary black turtleneck.

"Yes, of course I know that, where's our boy?"

Esposito snickered at that one. Kate was rethinking the need for a second detective on this visit.

"I'm sure he's off writing something." Even as Kate said it, she wondered for herself. "We're actually here to see you. Do you know a John Ackerman?"

"Jack? Sure. I do his public relations work, he's a writer, mostly historical romance stuff. Ladies love him. He uses a nom de plume."

"What is that Ms. Johnson?" Espo broke in.

"Ever heard of William Holden?"

Kate felt a hint of embarrassment. Oh, _those_ kind of books. The kind that don't go out on the shelf for company to find.

Espo was reading her face, "According to the insurance company, you are his sole beneficiary."

"Jack is dead?" Paula looked horrified. "Shit." She sat down in the chair nearest her desk, covered her mouth with her hand.

"Anything you can tell us about that?"

oxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

When she got back to her desk there was another cup of coffee and a sandwich with an envelope. His name was written in a beautiful scrawl. That was all. Just his name. She smiled at the memory from this morning.

_Where are you?_ She texted.

It took her half an hour to run William Holden and Paula Johnston through the databases and financials. Both came up clean. She checked her phone. Still no text from him.

Now she was irritated. _Contact me or I am hunting you down, _she texted.

_ILY, _was all he wrote. For all his ridiculous speeches, his drawn out theories, and his stories, he could only come up with a three letter text? It was enough for now, Ryan hovered.

"Turns out Paula was right, Ackerman . . . Holden, our vic's lawyer confirms, there is a codicil in the will, Paula gets the money, but she just distributes it to his charities. A children's fund, an environmental group and something called Jessica's Fund."

"Get me some background. And Espo? Did the girlfriend's alibi check out?"

"Oh, you mean his _muse_?" He smirked. "Yeah, her alibi checked out."

Beckett won their rather short staring contest.

oxoxoxoxox

At six, the bullpen was starting to thin out. She was up to her neck in financial records for Jessica's Fund, and something wasn't sitting right. She sent Ryan home and Espo was making phone calls in the bull pen.

She missed him. Her mind drifted back to this morning.

She had woken to a light tickling across her chest.

She was slow to adapt to morning. He knew that already, had known it long before they had started sleeping together. If her caffeine addiction didn't give her away, it would have been obvious from her consistent lack of breakfast.

Gradually conscious of his out -of- place presence, her intuition was suddenly very persistent. She opened her eyes to find him leaning over her, Sharpie permanent marker in hand.

"What are you doing?" She asked wide-eyed.

"Signing your chest." He said casually.

She sat straight up, clutching the sheet to her naked chest. He re-capped the pen as she looked at the scrawl now covering the curve of her breast. Looked up at him, horrified.

"What the hell Castle?"

He grabbed the back of her head and brought her forward to kiss her forehead.

"Just so you don't forget me today."

He was out of the room before she could respond.

oxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

She was still smiling at the memory, subconsciously rubbing her finger over the spot on her chest. Suddenly she was making a conscious decision. She was choosing him over the task at hand. She wanted to be with him. She bit her lip, rolled her eyes at her own ridiculousness. Her focus was fully shifted, _what was he up to all day? _

Esposito interrupted her thoughts, "Yo, Beckett, something you got to hear." He was not alone.

"This is Jessica Markus." He introduced Beckett across the interrogation room table. Adding,

"As in Jessica's Fund."

Oh.

"Ms. Markus, tell Detective Beckett what you told me."

The young woman looked nervous, hesitated before she started. "I had cancer as a child. Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. My mom was single when we found out and completely terrified, but really it is the most curable of the leukemias. I've been in remission since I was 12."

Clearly this woman was in her early 20s, pieces were starting to come together in Beckett's mind. Why on earth would there need to be a fund for a cured cancer patient? Jessica continued.

"During that time, my mom met a man. Brian became my stepdad less than six months after they met. He's the one who started the fund in my name. Here's the thing Detective, I haven't seen him in years. I was shocked to find out that there was still a fund in my name. As far as I know, those medical bills were paid long ago."

An hour later she and Espo were visiting a judge with the search warrant to be signed. Two hours after that, evidence and confession in hand, the case was over.

At midnight she stumbled in the door of her apartment. On the ride home she thought about Rick. A whole day with so little contact, and they weren't even fighting.

Xoxoxoxoxx

He was curled up on her couch, papers littered the floor and coffee table. _What on earth was he doing?_

She slipped off her shoes, hung her coat and snuck a peek at the papers. They looked like contracts. Had he spent all day with his lawyers? God, she knows how bored he gets after a day with them, complained about it for a week the last time. Little yellow _sign here_ flags were everywhere. She moved to grab the blanket off the back of the couch to cover him.

"Hey," he said sleepily.

"Go back to sleep, I'm gonna take a shower."

"Without me?" He grabbed her wrist, he was waking up, "I seem to recall you had a spot that needed extra attention to get clean."

"I think I can manage." She said flatly.

"Hold up, I've been waiting to talk to you for hours." He sat up, pulled her down to the couch. "I went to my lawyer today. I wanted to make some arrangements Kate."

"Arrangements?"

"Yeah, I just need you to sign some things." He handed her a pen.

"What is this?"

"Just making sure you get something from the royalties for _Frozen Heat_."

"Wait, why?"

"Because Kate, I want to make sure that you are taken care of financially."

She sat down beside him, "something you want to tell me?"

"Just creating motive should you ever make good on your threat to shoot me." He leaned in the meet her lips. She cupped his cheek and smiled as he pulled away.

"Come on now, I put my signature_ everywhere_ today, it's your turn."

"I haven't read any of these, and you want me to sign them at midnight?"

"Alright, I'll take out the one where you agree to be my sex slave."

She smirked and bumped his shoulder.

"No, leave that one in," she teased.

And then she was too preoccupied to sign them.

oxoxoxo

In the morning, she sat down with the documents in a giant pile. She did stop trying to read them midway through the stack, probably what he expected, until she reached a contract toward the bottom, the font style caught her attention and she flipped back from the page with the flag to see what it was.

An application for a marriage license for the State of New York.

His name was already signed. She noted her personal data was already filled in. She hesitated a moment before signing in her neatest handwriting, returned the signed stack to him nonchalantly as he sat in the chair by her desk. He didn't mention it then and neither did she. They'd been here before; he had a secret and so did she. This time she was sure it would end in a much less anxiety-producing reveal.

He'd signed across her heart so she'd signed across his.

oxoxoxoxoxox

A/N: Okay readers (my muses), this is a first in my summer hiatus experiment. No angst Season 4.5, C and B together quasi-fluff pieces where I attempt an actual PLOT (I _know_, even I thought that was crazy). This is just a little taste, if you like it, hit the review button so I know someone's reading it. If you hate it, send me an anonymous review.


	2. Chapter 2

He couldn't believe he had gotten away with it. Seriously, Kate Beckett was letting down her guard in a major way. He felt a little guilty about it, this taking advantage of her. Then again, he believed in what Gandhi said, "What is religion without sacrifice?"

His religion was Kate Beckett.

He believed in driving her crazy.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

"We've got a problem Detective." Victoria Gates was closing the door to her office, "Brian Walker confessed to the killing of John Ackerman?"

"Yes, last night, after he told us he needed the money Brian had promised to leave him to pay his step-daughter's medical bills."

"Pearlmutter just called. COD was not a gun shot. It seems he was poisoned. Walker's lawyer wants him released."

"Sir, his gun was a match to the ballistics, he confessed." Beckett rubbed at her forehead, "are you saying we are looking for _another _killer?"

"The ME says the cause of death was poisoning, we need to pursue whoever poisoned Ackerman. Let the DA work out what he wants to do with Walker. For now Detective, go back and find out who is responsible for the first murder. . . The real murder. . . You know what I mean."

Beckett was unpacking the box in which she had just filed John Ackerman's murder board. This was a first. Espo and Ryan moved to check it out.

"Beckett?" Ryan questioned.

"Ackerman was poisoned, we're back to square one. You guys go back and look for any woman in his life that might have wanted him dead. We ruled out the current girlfriend, but maybe there's one in the romance writer's past."

"Woman? How do you know it's a woman?"

"Castle once told me that statistically more poisonings are committed by women, so it might narrow the field. I'm going to go talk with the ME about the kind of poison, I'll text you anything relevant."

"Gooooood morning Detective," Castle cruised in, nodded to the boys as he handed over her usual cup.

"Okay, lose the 'just got laid' voice." She said once the boys were safely out of ear-shot.

He waggled his eyebrows, "jealous?"

"Nope, Gates told me to stop using mine this morning."

"Shut the front door."

She waggled her eyebrows at him as she grabbed her coat. "Got to go to the morgue."

"Who's dead?"

"John Ackerman."

"Isn't that your case from yesterday?"

"Right body, wrong killer."

"I knew you couldn't solve one without me."

"Ha." She said humorlessly, "See if you use that voice tomorrow."

xoxoxoxoxoxxoxox

As it turned out, alkaloid pseudaconitine was the poison, absorbed through the skin Pearlmutter had said. Two to four hours after contact with a plant product of Aconitum.

"So let me get this straight," Castle started, "this guy was poisoned, and while waiting to die, Walker, the guy who needed his inheritance, shot him? I love the smell of irony first thing in the morning."

"Want to talk ironic? Guess who Ackerman's Publicist is?"

He gleefully bit, "Who?"

"Paula." She watched his face drop," Let's go find out what kind of crazed fans he had."

On the way over she had Castle text Ryan and Espo to be on the lookout for the poison.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

"Ricky and Nikki," she greeted kissing Castle cheek. Kate rolled her eyes. "Heard you've been talking with the lawyers."

"Paula, please, do you have to know everything?"

"I'm your publicist, it's my job to know everything, you still get to decide what goes public, including this little affair." She gave Beckett the once-over.

Rick could see Kate's discomfort. She hadn't realized anyone outside their circle knew, hell half their family didn't know really, and now _Paula_ knew?

"Not what we're here to talk about," Beckett said coldly, "Ackerman . . . did he have any fans that seemed inappropriately interested?"

"Sure. Most of my clients do, including Rick here, but dangerous? I don't know that any of them would want to kill him."

"Paula," Rick tried to break the tension a bit, "did the fan-mail department flag anything?"

Rick described the poison, tried to jar Paula into any new information.

"Nothing I'm aware of, but I'll have them pull the security reports for you."

"Did you know Ackerman's schedule for last Thursday? Who would know about his appointments?"

Paula checked her computer. "I think he kept his own appointments, but I did have him for a book signing at Barrett Book Traders in Staten Island. They are known for historical romance. Jack did signings there pretty regularly. He was there from ten until noon."

"Thank you Paula." Castle stood and kissed her cheek. Paula smiled wide. Definitely an attention seeker. Great quality in a publicist, but not at all Kate's style.

"Yes, thank you." Kate added.

"Detective, you take good care of our boy, okay?" And then she added, "let me know if there is anything you'd like to announce publicly."

Kate turned an awkward glance to Castle, who in turn glared at Paula while ushering Kate out the door. He'd positively need to shut her up before Kate found out what he was up to.

Xoxoxoxoxoxox

Castle was prepping coffee for Kate and himself while she reported to Gates on their team's latest findings.

"Ryan." He stage-whispered as Ryan passed the doorway to the break room.

Kevin's head appeared before his body in the doorway. "Yeah?"

Castle pointed his chin, "When you and Jenny got married did you both have to show up at the City Clerk's office to get the license?"

"Yeah, kind of a bureaucratic hoop, you know, like a two hour wait just to show our driver's license and sign a form." Kevin's eye's drifted to the ceiling, "most romantic government office wait I've ever had."

"Hmm. Mine was the DMV. Fell in love with my test drive instructor. Ended when I hit a curb. Good times." Castle's eyes now drifted to the ceiling.

"Why are you asking Castle?" He narrowed his eyes suspiciously, "got a plan?"

"Got a little something there Ryan," Castle brushed at the shoulder of Ryan's suit, causing him to examine the area himself. While his eyes were averted, Castle turned and exited the room. Kevin was dumbfounded to find himself alone.

Xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

"I just want you to know you just kissed me," Kate had just taken a sip of her coffee while standing in front of their murder board. "I took a sip from that cup," he said proudly, the corners of his mouth turned up.

"Yeah well, you know what I said, you try anything while I'm at work, you get nothing at home." She quipped at him, "and what was all that business with Paula? Why does she know anything about us?"

"Okay, first, Paula has to know, she is in charge of my branding. I've learned it can be very helpful to include her in the loop before you find yourself naked and locked out on a rooftop." She narrowed her eyes, alarmed. "And second, I have always taken a sip from your coffee before I gave it to you, I like to think my devotion to unrequited kisses is romantic." Her mouth was now gaping.

"Is that how I caught your cold last winter?"

Esposito effectively ended their discussion with his entrance, something about an unrequited romance reader stalking John Ackerman.

Xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Barrett Book Traders in Staten Island was an ode to all things girly and romantic and Castle's attention was riveted. Lace and roses dripped off the Pepto-Bismol pink background like frosting off a cupcake. Women in their forties, fifties, sixties and seventies stopped their reading in the various intimate seating arrangements to eye Richard Castle. None of them were remotely attractive.

Kate took a quick look around before threading her arm through Castle's and staring down all the women including a stubborn one in her sixties that needed an extra measure of Kate's evil eye.

"Remember Beckett," he hissed, looking down at her, "if you try anything at work, you get nothing at home."

Now she was giving him the same look she'd just given the sixty year old.

They questioned the middle-aged manager of the bookstore who was wearing horn-rimmed glasses on a chain around her neck.

"Kimmy Davies, she was the one Ackerman had the argument with, something about chastity belts not being in Europe during the time of the Jutes."

Castle was watching Kate, amused by her discomfort with the subject.

"I wholeheartedly agree," he said once they were in the car.

"With what?" Kate asked, putting a hand on the back of his seat to back out of the parking space.

"About the chastity belts."

She made a point of turning up the volume on the radio before exiting the parking lot.

Xoxoxoxoxoxox

Castle was none to subtly pointing out the blue flowers growing against the small hothouse Kimmy had taking up an entire table sandwiched in front of the small apartment window. "Aconite," he hissed.

Kate was trying her best to get through a conversation with a woman obsessed with the discrepancies in Ackerman's latest romance novel.

"I mean seriously, authors should really research a subject before they write about it, do they really expect readers to be that dumb?"

"I completely agree. Research is essential to the art form," Castle was in his element.

He didn't even notice Kate's warning look.

"Ms. Davies, did you see John Ackerman after the signing?"

"You mean William Holden?"

"Holden was his nom de plume."

"No, why? Did something happen?"

The way Kimmy Davies was weeping uncontrollably over her favorite author told Beckett she was probably not their killer. A little unstable, but not angry enough to deny her utter attraction to a man whose stories she didn't always agree with, but whom she adored.

Xoxoxoxoxoxox

She was filling-out the time-line in front of the three men in her life, reviewing the data and suspects they had collected and dismissed.

"Okay, so we still don't know where he was from 2 until 4, Pearlmutter put the time of death at 5:30, with a poison that can act in as little as two hours and as much as four. We really need to find out where he was."

Esposito interjected, "Also, according to Pearlmutter and Lanie, the guy had to have a significant amount of this poison applied to a large area of skin in order for it to have killed him."

"How does that happen? How do you expose yourself to that much? How do you let someone do that to you?" Ryan wondered aloud.

"Unless you think it's for another reason?" Rick asked.

"What do you mean?" Kate asked.

"Writers sit around a lot," he continued despite their scoffing, emphasizing his next words, "a good massage usually undoes a lot of bad posture at these long book signings."

"So this guy could have thought he was getting a massage, when in reality someone was giving him a rub down with a poison?" Ryan questioned.

"Explains how he would allow that much to get on him."

"Hey, one of his ex-girlfriends is a massage therapist." Esposito pointed out.

A few hours later they had a confession.

Xoxoxoxoxoxox

The fire cast a warm glow about the room. Castle was on his couch typing on his computer when Kate stole up behind him and massaged his shoulders.

He closed his eyes a moment before leaning back, looking up at her.

"Hey."

She kissed him awkwardly, laughing into his mouth.

"Heard that authors spend a lot of time sitting around, "she said seductively, "they sometimes need a massage, from your extensive research, you find that to be true?"

"You want to give me a rub down Kate?"

"Without my chastity belt Rick? Sounds dangerous."

"Oh it will be Detective. But you can handle danger, can't you?"

She let him see her ponder that a moment, "I'm not sure I'm the one in danger."

And then he was off the couch and chasing her into the bedroom.

xoxoxxoxxoxoxxoxoxxox

A/N: This is dedicated to TheCastleWatcher, my very first stalker. I'm totally honored, but please, don't kill anyone and try to have me decipher your twisted clues. I'm a writer not a cop.

I had no intention of continuing this story past the first chapter, but since people asked so sweetly in their reviews and because everyone just needs to tame their anxiety until 'Always,' I gave you this nugget, which, by the way, totally screwed up my mystery story line in chapter one. This whole plot thing . . . not as easy as it seems.

Turn-about is fair play. If your anxiety was lesson a bit by this piece, send me a review (it relieves my anxiety). If you hated it then send it anonymously (except you LDJ, I'd expect no less).


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